San Marino Motor Lodge

28/02/2024

First renovated unit almost finished! Watch this space for more updates :)

22/06/2023

What a beautiful day today. Could be a nice weekend to spend by the beach.

27/11/2022

Right on a gorgeous beach!: San Marino Motor Lodge - See 79 traveller reviews, 78 photos, and cheap deals for San Marino Motor Lodge at Tripadvisor.

22/11/2022

Heading to the Bay of Islands? A short walk from Haruru Falls on the Waitangi Track brings you to some large pohutukawa trees overhanging the river that play host to pied shags (big black and white cormorants) year round. In September these large birds (pictured) are joined by Little Pied and Little Black Cormorants. It can be quite raucous and entertaining to watch the comings and goings of adults as they feed their chicks. You get excellent eye-level views of the nests from the track. Photos are once again courtesy of Yvonne Sant

30/10/2022

Heading up to Cape Reinga? Don't miss a stop at the DOC camp at Tapotupotu. The turnoff is on the right not long before the Cape. There's a beautiful beach and tracks leading either to the Cape or to Pandora in the other direction. These are part of Te P**i Coastal Walkway. This boardwalk is near the campground at Tapotupotu and starts the walk to Pandora and eventually on to Spirits Bay. (Kapowairua)

23/10/2022

About an hour north of here is the people's pine forest described in E. V. Sale's book: Forest on Sand. The book describes the transformation of barren sand dunes into forest on the Aupouri Peninsula beginning in the 1960s and 1970s. The trees one sees today are a couple of generations on from those original plantings and are home to several small herds of wild horses. The photo is again made by Yvonne Sant. The book, Forest on Sand, is available for purchase from the museum at Te Ahu in Kaitaia.

01/10/2022

Our beautiful and pleasingly sleepy Coopers Beach. Yet another photo care of Yvonne Sant.

23/09/2022

Did you know there is a flourishing colony of hundreds of Royal Spoonbills that make their home in the inner-mangrove-reaches of the Rangaunu Harbour just a half-hour drive from Coopers Beach? These birds have flown across the Tasman from Australia for an undetermined period of time and were first recorded breeding in Aotearoa in 1947. The easiest way to see these spectacular birds is to go to the end of Unahi Road just north of Awanui. They'll be seen feeding when the tide is out. These photos and the video were taken near Kaimaumau by Yvonne Sant.

23/09/2022

The Karikari Peninsula is what you see when looking across Doubtless Bay from your room at the San Marino. It is home to some spectacular beaches including the white sands of Rangiputa. Next to Rangiputa is the wild and uninhabited Puwheke Beach and maunga. A place to get away from it all. If you are lucky you'll see dolphins surfing the waves. The photos are from Puwheke, the two secluded beaches next along and Karrkari Beach beyond them. The photos are thanks to Yvonne Sant, who walks weekly with a local tramping group.

14/09/2022

Our guests come from far and wide. What a pleasure to have you stay with us.

02/09/2022

Did you know there is an ancient forest lying under the sands of Coopers Beach. The recent wild storms have exposed a little of that forest. Years ago more was revealed. We found fossilised coconuts (small ones as are still growing in South America today), walnuts (again small ones as you'd find in East Asia) and macadamia nuts (as are found naturally in southern Queensland). In other words there was a forest here millions of years ago that had species found to this day on the lands of our Pacific neighbours. Fascinating, don't you think?

The photo is of a fossilised coconut found on Coopers Beach. Beachcombers find them still when the conditions are right.

18/08/2022

The Waimamaku Coastal walkway is a startling contrast to the Waiotemarama Waterfall walk mentioned in my last post.. Access is just outside Opononi at the South Head visitor car park. Should you wish you can even get to the beginning of the walk by following a newly built footpath all the way from the village. The walk is a several hour day walk but, again, you can go as far as you like and then simply turn around and return to the start. Should you wish to do the longer version you will need to time it for around the time of low tide. There are amazing views of the Tasman Sea and unique flora found almost nowhere else.

Discover wide open beaches and rocky headlands on the rugged coastline between the Hokianga Harbour and the majestic Waimamaku River.